5 Things You Didn't Know You Could Buy At Auction

3 - Wine

If you’re serious about your wine, you might want to consult Sotheby’s auction house. Yes, you could just contact your favorite winemaker, but that won’t get you access to hard-to-find wines. Participating in an auction will bring you bottles that you couldn’t find anywhere else because these events are geared to putting something unique and special on the market. If you’re a connoisseur, chances are that you’re looking to find an exceptional and particular vintage, so wine auctions would be the place for you.

4 - Domain name

It may seem odd to you, but some guys think that domain names are basically cyberspace real estate. Think that’s just a little leftover tech bubble hype? Well Sex.com sold for $14 million at auction and Sex.net took in $450,000. Okay, they’re big-name sites with a lot of sex appeal, but Blue.com was bought for $65,000 in 2002 and sold for $500,000 in 2006. The reason domain names are compared with real estate is because they are long-term investments.

Monicker.com, which organizes regular domain name auctions, helps cyber-speculators cash in. Is this a bona fide business? Well for some people it is, and for others it’s something of a pipedream. But registering a domain name is a relatively cheap proposition (less than $20 depending on who you register with) with a lot of potential upside.

5 - Sports collectables

Remember all those baseball cards you collected as a kid? The signed football jersey? That errant hockey puck you snared with your bare hands? Well, those items are worth money. While you could go down to your local sports collectible store and hawk it, chances are you’d be missing out on a real payday. Virtually every brick and mortar sports collectible store lists its inventory online through sites like eBay and Yahoo Auctions, and you can do the same thing. Snap a picture of your memorabilia, write a good description and post it online.

The nice thing about sports memorabilia auctions is that they’re constant. Plus, if you’re a fan looking to part with some of your toys, it’s not hard to predict when the market will be best. For example, suppose you have a Roger Clemens rookie card. If you read the sports pages, you know that five years after he retires, he’ll be in the baseball hall of fame. It’s probably a safe bet to assume that his induction will mark a huge surge in demand for Clemens memorabilia.